As someone who uses much (let’s be honest…most) of his spare time in creative pursuits, I’ve become accustomed to the demands of chasing after an artistic dream: the time it takes, the energy it saps, and the money you spend. Many creative workers have taken to Patreon, a site built for artists to connect with people who would like to help keep their work afloat by reducing or removing the financial burden through regular payments. These payments can be tied to the calendar (in the form of a monthly pledge) or to creations (for instance, a certain dollar amount per video uploaded to YouTube).

In most (but not all) cases, the artists seeking patronage on Patreon offer a tiered system of rewards, as enticement to and thanks for supporting them. While I haven’t been a Patreon creator, I have been lending my support for creators on the site for several years now, and I wanted to lend my thoughts on rewards and output for those who may be using Patreon (or considering it) to supplement or generate their revenue.

Rewards Should Be Rewarding

It is absolutely not necessary to offer any rewards to your Patreon patrons in order to ask for contributions. Many (if not most) patrons want to support creators for the work they’re making, rather than for anything above and beyond, and setting up rewards that don’t appear or don’t add much value can often be more frustrating to a patron than no rewards at all. If you are going to offer rewards, here are some tips I would give as a patron who has been on the receiving end:

• Exclusivity: If you’re going to offer the regular work you do (stories, videos, paintings) to your patrons as a reward, don’t just give them something they could get as a non-patron. I see a lot of Patreon creators offer “early access” to videos and stories and such that are then released hours later to the general public, or “behind the scenes” looks that are put into the public eye within days of Patreon release. If you are going to tout something as a perk, make it exclusive enough to matter. Seeing a video an hour before everyone else does doesn’t feel very exclusive, while getting access to a series of rehearsals that will never be shown to anyone but patrons may feel very exclusive indeed.
• Access: Often, patrons support the artists they feel a special connection to, so a reward that costs very little outside of your time would be the opportunity for access. Livestreams, Skype sessions, hangouts or a special forum you’ll be participating in can give your patrons the access they’re seeking without putting you at too much risk of building relationships that are too intrusive. With regular sessions of access, your patrons will learn more about you and feel better about the investment they’re making in your work.
• Bonus Items: There are a lot of artists who feel that they should give something physical/tangible to their patrons as a thank-you gift. While this can often feel like something special, make sure that the items you’re giving somehow relate to the creative work you’re doing. If you’re a visual artist, reproductions of your work (or even original works) could be a very special bonus item, while a postcard or sticker of your magazine’s logo may not feel like anything but advertising. Remember that if you’re going to make something to send to your patrons, it has to feel like something they would want to pay for if they weren’t patrons, and not a badge for a Secret Society of the Creator.
• Thanks: The value of seeing your support being thanked within the context of a creator’s work is often more valuable than anything else. A dedication or thanks in the afterward of a book, a credit roll in a creator’s video, a shout-out on an artist’s web page can seem like an almost too easy way to offer a reward on your Patreon account, but it’s often the best way. Investors regularly give money to productions simply to see their names on the credits, so don’t discount the power of a public thank you.

Keep Creating

Overall, Patreon should be about creators finding the people who want to support them for the work they’re already doing.

One of the pitfalls I have seen over and over again from creators is, after setting up and promoting their Patreon page and gaining a certain amount of revenue per month, they simply stop creating the things that their patrons pay them to do. Often, these delays or stoppages in work are accompanied with a post or series of posts about how busy or challenging the creator’s everyday life is, and that the work will come “soon.”

As a patron, it can be difficult to weigh the options on funding creators who articulate so well the struggles they’re facing artistically or in life, and the decision on whether or not to fund an artist who isn’t producing the art that brought you to them is a highly personal one. My advice to creators is to not put your patrons in this quandary. Find a way to keep creating the work that brought your patrons to you, and treat their monetary support as you would payment for any job. If you aren’t creating the work, why should you keep getting paid? Remember that Patreon is there so that you can have a transactional relationship with the people who enjoy your work, and not to treat it as “bonus money” or a gift. If everyone is above-board and knows what they’re getting for the work and money they give, it can be rewarding for all involved.